An Eye For An Eye

Time and again I have heard the quote "Why do people kill people to prove that killing people is wrong?" It is not to prove killing is wrong, but to enforce the idea that if you are going to act like an animal, you will be treated as one and be put down like a dog that can not live within the confines of our law in this country when you take the life of another human being.

Tookie Williams, a co-founder of the Crips, was executed this morning at 12:01 am. So many people are in an uproar about this execution because of all the "great work" Williams did while he was in prison.

Excuse me for not caring.

I do not have a personal vendetta against this man at all, I am not purposely singling him out as opposed to countless other death row inmates, but his case does invite extra attention given the hype surrounding it. So many people have come to his defense, but why? Do you think the man who is partly responsible for founding one of the most violent street gangs in our country would have done half the stuff he did in prison, had he NOT been convicted? I highly doubt it. Do you really think he would have gone on and written these children's books speaking out against street gangs, were he still living on the outside today? In rare fashion, I actually agree with Governor Schwarzenegger's written statement yesterday when denying one of Williams' last appeals: "Is Williams' redemption complete and sincere, or is it just a hollow promise? Without an apology and atonement for these senseless and brutal killings, there can be no redemption." I have a hard time believing redemption can exist in men and women like this.

I have a hard enough time giving people second chances in everyday life. You screw me or mine over, you disrespect me or any of my friends, you might as well not even exist to me because you mean nothing. I think it is only natural for me to extend the same line of thinking to death row inmates: you committed a horrible crime, why you should you get a second chance when your victims do not? Then there are those who say if we are not going to abolish the death penalty, we need to find a more humane way to execute convicted murderers. Why? Were these killers humane when they took innocent lives? No, so why should the same courtesy be extended to them? I have no sympathy whatsoever for these criminals and if I would have my way, they would be sitting in tiny cells with nothing but a mattress to sleep on and a bucket to pee in until the day of their execution. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

I can hear the protestors now: "But what about the times where people are proven innocent because of new evidence or DNA results?" For every time that happens however, there are hundreds more cases where DNA samples have proven the jury was right all along, and it was a waste of time and money to test in the first place. I am not saying we should sacrifice one innocent person's life, but in the cases where there is simply no more evidence that could possibly prove guilt or innocence one way or another, then string 'em up. Okay, so hanging isn't an option in most states anymore (except New Hampshire and Washington), but you get the idea. If you broke the law, if you got caught, if your crime was so despicable a jury of your peers deemed you not fit to live within our society anymore, then that is the price you pay. I hope losing your own life was worth it.

The death penalty is not a deterrent by any means and I know this - otherwise we wouldn't have the crime rate that we do. But what is the purpose of trying to rehabilitate people for crimes that have been proven over time impossible to rehabilitate. Rapists and child molesters can not be rehabilitated. They can not, or why else would child molesters have rules about where they can and can not live? Why would they have to go from house to house letting everyone in their neighborhood know of their convictions? BECAUSE THEY CAN NOT BE CURED and basically when their sentences are up, the police just have to wait for them to commit their crime again so they can be locked up for another couple of years. It is a ridiculously vicious cycle and one I wish could be stopped. Let's just send this particularly nasty group of deviants to a desert to rot.

As always, there are exceptions to this. I was extremely disappointed to find out Scott Peterson, the man from California who murdered his pregnant wife Lacey, had been sentenced to death. Here is a man so narcissistic, the last thing he wants to do is sit in prison for the rest of life, thinking about how he failed to get away with his crime. Therein lies the perfect punishment. Put him in a four by four cell overlooking the bay where his wife and son's bodies washed ashore and let him think for the rest of his life about what a miserable failure he was because he did not get away with it.

Again, this was not a personal vendetta that I have against Tookie Williams, but my view on the death penalty in general. If you break the law, you go to jail, it is that simple. If you have such a problem with going to jail, then don't commit crimes. Stop blaming everyone else for the mistakes you make and deal with it. There is always going to be some gray area in this issue, but in so many cases, those on Death Row are guilty and the fact that their executions sometimes get pushed back 15 or 20 years while their lawyers waste the public's time and money on appeals, it just sickens me - especially when these slime-ball defense attorneys KNOW their client is guilty.

Ugh, I'm done, if I think about this any more, I think my head will explode. Go ahead and complain, I am expecting it.